STUART — Hidden Oaks Middle School will get to fill an open assistant principal position but Indiantown Middle School won't, thanks to action taken Tuesday by the Martin County School Board.

Schools Superintendent Nancy Kline asked the board to fill both assistant principal positions despite a board-imposed hiring freeze on administrative posts, saying in an Aug. 31 memo the positions are fully funded in the district's 2012-13 budget, included in the district's organizational chart and crucial to performing state-mandated teacher evaluations.

"To block the hiring of critical administrative positions within the district is harmful to district operations and places the health, safety and welfare of children and staff at risk," Kline wrote.

Lisa Gray of Palm City, who has a daughter at Hidden Oaks and a son who will attend next year, also asked that the board fill the positions, saying the schools are being "penalized" because other middle schools are fully staffed with administrators.

Board member Maura Barry-Sorensen's motion to fill the positions, which was seconded by Michael Busha, seemed doomed to fail by a 2-3 vote after board Chairwoman Sue Hershey and members Laurie Gaylord and David Anderson spoke against it.

The three said Kline should temporarily assign other district administrators to take over assistant principal duties at the two schools until November, when Gaylord, who defeated Kline in the Aug. 14 superintendent election, and three new board members take their seats.

Gaylord said she also was concerned that Kline wanted to move Kathryn Morem from her position as coordinator of the district's federal Race to the Top grant to the Indiantown post during a "critical year" for the grant.

Before the motion on both positions could crash and burn, Busha suggested breaking it up.

His motion to "unfreeze" the Hidden Oaks assistant principal position was approved unanimously, as was his motion to move David Axton, a Martin Middle School guidance counselor, to the job.

Gaylord and Anderson said filling the Hidden Oaks job was necessary because the school has more than 1,000 students, but filling the Indiantown job wasn't because that school has about 400 students.

"In a case like this," Busha replied, "size shouldn't matter."

Kline said after the meeting she was "shocked that the board would fill an assistant principal position for a Palm City school but not for an Indiantown school."

In other action, the board:

Approved a $119,085 contract with Song & Associates, a West Palm Beach architectural firm, to provide design documents for renovations at the Martin County High School Auditorium, which was damaged in a Jan. 2 fire.

As initial cleanup work was being done at the auditorium, district officials discovered that upgrades such as improved ventilation, sprinklers, entrances and exits were needed to bring the building up to current safety codes. One of the district's insurance carriers has balked at paying for the upgrades, but Julian G. "Jay" Angel, the district facilities director, told board members that paying for the plans will enable renovation work to continue while a settlement is negotiated.

"We still expect the insurance company to fund the project," Angel said.

Approved an agreement with the Martin County Parks and Recreation Department for high school swim teams to use swimming pools at the county-owned Sailfish Splash Waterpark for practices and competitions.

More than 150 swimmers from Martin County, Jensen Beach and South Fork high schools and the private Martin County Aquatics team have been sharing the 10-lane pool at Martin County High School, which required staggered practice sessions and up to 10 kids in a lane at a time.

According to emails between district and parks and recreation department officials, swim teams from Jensen Beach and South Fork will use the Sailfish Splash pool for practice sessions, while the Martin County High School swim team and the Aquatics team will continue to practice at MCHS' pool.

Met behind closed doors with legal counsel to discuss a lawsuit filed in October in U.S. District Court in Fort Pierce by Dorothy Mershon, widow of Gordon Kent Mershon, who alleges her husband's contract as district energy manager was not renewed for the 2009-10 school year because he was 64 years old.

Gordon Mershon died of a heart attack Sept. 23, 2010, at age 65; the lawsuit claims the death was "a direct and proximate result of the defendant's wrongful conduct."

According to a district court document, the case is scheduled to go to trial during the two-week period beginning Sept. 24 in Fort Pierce.